Chapter 8 Transpersonal Development

Transcription

1 Chapter 8 TRANSPERSONAL DEVELOPMENT Chapter Outline I. The Nature and Conditions of Transpersonal Human Development A. Human Development Across the Lifespan 1. What is developmental psychology? 2. Three assumptions of all stage models of development in psychology. 3. Within general stages of development, unique and personal development occurs. 4. Stages of development beyond the conventional. B. Transpersonal Development 1. Distinguishing transpersonal and traditional mainstream approaches. a. Spiritual dimension included. b. Integral whole person approach employed. c. Foundational role of consciousness emphasized. d. Questions of value, meaning, and purpose pertinent. e. Impulses toward self transcendence beyond ego recognized. f. Importance of experiential learning acknowledged. g. Implications of a transpersonal approach to human development. 2. The role of the transpersonal psyche in human development a. The stability of the Transpersonal Self. b. A motive force behind all "ideal" patterns of individual development. 3. Symbols of transformation and transpersonal development a. Mystical experiences of direct knowing without symbolization. b. Symbols stand for inner realities and the changing characteristics of consciousness in various states. c. Classic metaphors of transformation i. Awakening from the dream of "reality." ii. Waking up. II. Transpersonally-Oriented Theories in Developmental Psychology A. Erik Erikson's Theory of Personal Identity Development.

2 1. The self that one is is ever changing, while one's sense of identity is retained. 2. Teenage intimacy as a matter of self-definition. 3. The wisdom of youth and the joy of old age. 4. We live in the body of our beliefs. B. Frances Vaughan's Theory of Transpersonal Identity development. 1. Self-concept a. The importance of beliefs in the development of self-identity. b. Different forms of self-identity studied in contemporary psychology. c. How does one's self-identity change? d. Circle diagram illustrating relationship among various forms of self- 2. The bodily and emotional self. a. Identification, differentiation, transcendence, and integration. 3. Egoic self-consciousness. a. Identification, differentiation, transcendence, and integration. 4. Shift from egoic self-consciousness to existential identity. a. Existential identity. b. Becoming a fully-functioning existential self. 5. Shift from existential identity to transpersonal awareness. a. Being a fully-functioning existential self. b. Moving from awareness of independence to interdependence c. Integration of the Shadow d. Sense of self expands. 6. Approaching the Transpersonal Self a. Differentiation, transcendence, and integration. b. Spiritual development "beyond ego" does not require surrender, loss or annihilation of the ego. c. Contacting one's Transpersonal Self. d. The Transpersonal Self e. Transpersonal Self-awareness and egoic self-consciousness compared. 7. Shift from Transpersonal Awareness to No Self. a. Consciousness without an object. b. The nature and conditions of "no self." identity.

3 C. Ken Wilber's developmental model of consciousness 1. Differentiation, identification, and integration. 2. Basic structures of consciousness. 3. The developmental lines. 4. Pre/trans fallacy. 5. Critique of hierarchical models of development a. Hierarchical models are value-ladened. b. Hierarchical models stratify reality. c. Hierarchical models blind us to other realizations and realities. D. Michael Washburn's spiral-dynamic model of ego development 1. Distinguishing Washburn's spiral-dynamic model and Wilber's structuralhierarchical model of human development. E. Roberto Assagioli's psychosynthesis model of personality development 1. Stages of transpersonal development. 2. Personal psychosynthesis a. Knowledge of one's personality i. Personality is capable of producing many ego structures across the lifespan. b. Control of its elements 3. Transpersonal psychosynthesis. a. Realization of one s true Self - the discovery or creation of a unifying center. b. Psychosynthesis: the formation or reconstruction of the personality around the new center. i. The superconscious realms are in constant renewal. 4. Psychosynthesis is capable of being scientifically tested and verified.

4 III. Spiritual Development A. Key Ideas that Define a Transpersonal Approach to Spiritual Development 1. Impulses toward spiritual development are continuous in every person. 2. Full awareness of impulses toward spiritual development is not necessarily present at any given time. 3. To develop spiritually practice spirituality. 4. Every individual has the right to choose his or her own spiritual path. B. Spiritual Development as Human Development 1. Spiritual development as a psychological concern. 2. Spiritual development within a non-theological context. 3. Does spirituality unfold in stages? a. No b. Yes 4. Relationship between psychological and spiritual development. C. Childhood Spirituality 1. Is there childhood spirituality? a. No b. Yes 2. Conceptual and methodological problems with research into religious experiences of children. 3. Childhood spiritual experiences are a relatively common phenomenon. 4. The transpersonal nature of childhood. IV. Dying, Death and Near-Death A. Death Awareness 1. Death and dying as important a part of the lifespan as birth and living 2. The pioneering work of Elizabeth Kübler-Ross. 3. Transpersonal approach to the care of the dying. a. Death awareness can enhance life awareness. b. Personal and transpersonal transformation through death awareness.

5 B. Fear of Death 1. The fear of death and its origins. 2. Fear of death and alternate states of consciousness. 3. Techniques for reducing the fear the death. C. Death with Dignity and the Appropriate Death 1. Important considerations in a death with dignity and an appropriate death. 2. Religious feeling as a biological spirituality beyond social conformity and convention. 3. Important secular variables in an "appropriate death." D. Death and Near-Death 1. The transformative effects of near-death experiences. 2. "Core" characteristics of near-death experiences. 3. Cross-cultural variability in death and near-death experiences. 4. The "death" experience. 5. Integral, multi-factorial approach is required. E. Consciousness and Survival 1. What Americans believe. 2. Scientific study of the possibility of psychic life beyond biological death.

6 Chapter 8 TRANSPERSONAL DEVELOPMENT Learning Objectives 1. Define developmental psychology and describe the different lines or aspects of the developmental process that it studies. 2. Describe the three main assumptions of all stage models of human development in psychology. 3. Explain why the concept of stages is useful for describing developmental change and how every individual instance of that general developmental pattern is unique. 4. Explain why post-conventional developmental patterns and stages of development are called transpersonal. 5. Identify six ways in which a transpersonal approach to human development differs from other more traditional mainstream approaches. 6. Discuss the implications of the transpersonal approach for understanding the nature and conditions of human development. 7. Evaluate the two-fold thesis that "Evolution is finished" and "Human nature cannot change." 8. Discuss the relationship between developmental change and personal identity. 9. Describe the role and function of the inner Transpersonal Self in the developmental change process. 10. Discuss how personalized developmental patterns that point to individual ideal developments are present within the more general patterns and stages of development. 11. Explain why transpersonal states known as mysticism are often called "ineffable." 12. Describe the role and function of symbolism in representing inner realities and the changing characteristics of consciousness in various states. 13. Describe how the mystic's pure knowing and pure feeling can be translated into normal conscious terms that the reasoning mind can understand. 14. Identify three classic metaphors of self-transformation and describe the developmental change process implied by each. 15. Explain why the waking state is a suboptimal state of awareness from which we need to "awaken." 16. Describe two ways by which a person might awaken from the dream of "reality." 17. Describe the nature of identity as it unfolds during psychosocial states of development throughout the lifespan, according to Erik Erikson. 18. Explain why teenage intimacy is often a matter of self-definition, particularly for males. 19. Describe how the current concepts held by modern American society lead individuals to fear old age from the time of youth. 20. Discuss the role of beliefs in the unfolding of developmental changes throughout the lifespan, especially in bringing about those conditions a person may experience in old age. 21. Discuss the role that beliefs and expectation play in the development of one's self-concept. 22. Distinguish the different forms of self-identity focused upon by the various contemporary perspectives of psychology. 23. Name the four-fold process identified by Vaughan through which changes in self-concept occur. 24. Draw a circle diagram depicted by Vaughan to illustrate the relationship among the body self, emotional self, mental egoic self, existential self, Transpersonal Self, and Absolute Spirit. 25. Explain how the bodily and emotional self develops through the four-fold process of identification, differentiation, transcendence, and integration, according to Vaughan's theory. 26. Explain how egoic self-consciousness develops through the four-fold process of identification, differentiation, transcendence, and integration, according to Vaughan's theory.

7 27. Describe what occurs during the shift from egoic self-consciousness to existential identity, according to Vaughan. 28. Tell what the individual must be willing to do in order to discover his or her existential identity. 29. Describe the two-fold process of "moving away from the false self" and "moving toward the real self" that occurs when individuals are striving to become a "full-functioning" existential self. 30. Describe what occurs during the shift from existential identity to transpersonal awareness, according to Vaughan. 31. Describe what it is like to be a fully-functioning existential self. 32. Describe the process of moving from awareness of independence to interdependence that occurs in the shift from existential identity to transpersonal awareness and identify its likely cause. 33. Explain why healthy personality development requires that the split between the egoic selfconsciousness and personal shadow be healed in the shift from existential identity to transpersonal awareness. 34. Explain how transpersonal awareness develops through the processes of differentiation, transcendence, and integration. 35. Explain why personality development "beyond ego" does not require the loss of ego. 36. Carry out a practical exercise that is designed to foster contact with the Transpersonal Self and write about what happens when one performs in the way suggested. 37. Define the Transpersonal Self. 38. Compare the characteristics and qualities of experience of ordinary egoic self-consciousness and Transpersonal Self-consciousness. 39. Explain why egoic and transpersonal aspects of personality are needed to live a whole and integrated life. 40. Describe the sense of self-identity, the Tao, that is talked about in Buddhism -- consciousness without an object, the No Self. 41. Describe how human consciousness develops or unfolds through the three-fold process of differentiation, identification, and integration, according to Ken Wilber. 42. Outline the nine basic structures of consciousness development postulated by Ken Wilber. 43. Define the Great Chain of Being. 44. Explain how Wilber's concept of developmental lines accounts for the fact that overall development of most aspects or dimensions of human personality functioning tend to show no linear or sequential development whatsoever. 45. Define the pre/trans fallacy that is proposed by Wilber and explain why it is important. 46. Evaluate and judge the value of hierarchical models of human development. 47. Describe how Michael Washburn s spiral-dynamic model differs from Ken Wilber s structuralhierarchical model of human development. 48. State the direction and task of personality development, according to Roberto Assagioli's theory of Psychosynthesis. 49. Identify the four stages of transpersonal development identified by Assagioli. 50. Discuss the process that must be undertaken in order "know thyself," according to Psychosynthesis. 51. Describe the goal of personal psychosynthesis, according to Assagioli. 52. Describe what occurs during the first stage of psychosynthesis: Knowledge of one's personality. 53. Describe what occurs during the second stage of psychosynthesis: Control of various elements of the personality. 54. Describe what occurs during the third stage of psychosynthesis: Realization of one s true Self and the discovery or creation of a unifying center. 55. Describe what occurs during the fourth stage of psychosynthesis: The formation or reconstruction of the personality around the new center. 56. Discuss Assagioli s view that the superconscious realms are in constant renewal.

8 57. List the methods and techniques employed in Psychosynthesis to evoke direct experience and inner realizations that may be later subject to a comprehensive program of research and application. 58. Explain how impulses toward spiritual development are continuous in every person. 59. Explain why full awareness of impulses toward spiritual development is not necessarily present at any given time in any given individual. 60. Explain how the realization of spiritual development is essentially dependent on direct practice and on conditions suitable to the individual. 61. Evaluate whether every individual has the right to choose his [or her] own spiritual path. 62. Describe how spiritual development is a psychological concern and an appropriate topic of study for developmental psychology. 63. Explain how the use of terms such as "inner self," "Higher Self," "true self," "real Self," "transpersonal Self," "Spirit," "soul," and so forth, can lead to distortions in one's understanding of spirituality and spiritual development, according to Daniel Helminiak. 64. Evaluate and judge the value of a completely non-theological account of spiritual development. 65. Defend Helminiak's hypothesis that spiritual development does not unfold independently along its own separate developmental line, but occurs as a part of the whole person -- intellectual, emotional, physical, social or relational. 66. Using the five most common definitions of spirituality identified by Wilber, answer the question: "Does spirituality itself unfold in stages?" 67. Discuss the hypothesis that spirituality is a separate line of development that unfolds independently of other aspects, lines, or streams of psychological development (e.g., cognitive, moral, affective, social). 68. Discuss the controversial issue: "Is there childhood spirituality?" 69. Explain why childhood spirituality is thought to be limited only to rare and exceptional cases of peak experiences by mainstream developmental psychology. 70. Discuss the conceptual and methodological problems with research into religious experiences among children. 71. Identify three empirical research studies that indicate that the occurrence of childhood spiritual experiences are a relatively more common phenomenon than previously thought. 72. Identify three lines of evidence that suggests that the tabula rasa conception of childhood which assumes that the infant comes into life a vacant vessel to be filled by experience is mistaken. 73. Explain why death and dying are important topics of study in transpersonal psychology. 74. Name the six stages of dying identified by Elizabeth Kübler-Ross. 75. Describe the transpersonal approach to the care of the dying. 76. Explain how awareness of the inevitability of one's death can enhance a person's awareness of day-to-day living. 77. Discuss the themes echoed in both Ikiru and in the live psychotherapy with the dying client described by Weimer & Lu (1987). 78. Discuss positive effect of the film Ikiru on the death anxiety and attitudes toward death of audiences who watch the film. 79. Identify and discuss the three attitudes that human cultures tend to take toward death. 80. Explain how ego-dissolution may be at the root of humanity's fear of death. 81. Discuss the "alternate state" hypothesis proposed by Garfield (1975) in light of his research findings. 82. Propose at least three techniques that may be used to decrease one's fear of death and explain their rationale. 83. Define the terms death with dignity and appropriate death. 84. Describe the most important considerations in the capacity to die an appropriate death. 85. Explain how religious feeling can exist outside of the context of formal exoteric religion. 86. Identify two important secular variables in an appropriate death.

9 87. Describe the transformative effects on personality development of near-death experiences (NDEs). 88. Identify the "core" characteristics of NDEs. 89. Discuss the variability that has been observed in death and near-death experiences across cultures. 90. Identify and discuss seven cross-cultural similarities in both Tibetan and Euro-American NDEs that may reveal some fundamental properties of death. 91. Identify two information sources that provide a description of the "death" experience. 92. Explain why an integral, multi-factorial approach is required in order to obtain a comprehensive, accurate, and meaningful understanding of death and near-death experiences across cultures. 93. Summarize the results of the 1981 poll conducted by the Gallup organization concerning American's belief in life after death, reincarnation, and the possibility that life after death will be proved scientifically. 94. List the main types of data suggestive of the continuation of personality after death. 95. Briefly summarize the history of psychic research and experimental parapsychology from 1882 to the present. 96. Describe the role that American philosopher and psychologist played in the history of psychical research. 97. Describe the role that transpersonal psychology plays in contemporary explorations of the hypothesis that human personality survives the death of the physical body.

10 Chapter 8 Summary This chapter examines human development across the lifespan in light of the theories and concepts of transpersonal psychology. Developmental psychology is the field of psychology that studies human development from birth to death. Human development is often understood in terms of general stages of development within which personal development occurs. Transpersonal psychology studies stages of development beyond the conventional levels that point to possibilities of growth customarily overlooked in general psychology textbooks. Transpersonal development includes a spiritual dimension in human personality functioning, employs a whole person approach, emphasizes the role that awareness plays in development and the importance of questions of value, meaning, and purpose. Transpersonal psychology recognizes the existence of inherent impulses toward transcendence that bring into being capacities and abilities ordinarily overlooked by mainstream developmental psychology. Several theories are examined in this chapter that outline the unfolding of transpersonal capacities and abilities beyond conventional stages of development. Erik Erikson's theory of personal identity development highlights the role that self-concepts and beliefs play in the unfolding of unexplored creative capacities across the lifespan and the expansive and flexible nature of human personality. France Vaughn's theory of identity formation beyond personal egoic identity draws attention to the existence of an inner, Transpersonal Self that represents a person's striving for unity and balance, equilibrium and stability, cohesion and integration of all the various portions of the self. Ken Wilber's developmental model of consciousness elucidates post-conventional stages of human development identified in ancient mystical traditions. Michael Washburn's spiral-dynamic model of ego development highlights the supportive nature of those inner dynamic, subconscious regions of the psyche from which impulses toward "higher" qualities of character and states of being spring. Roberto Assagioli's psychosynthesis model of personality development focuses on promoting the harmonious inner recognition by the conscious "I" of the existence of a Transpersonal Self that heals the fundamental duality between the outer and inner selves so that the whole self is put in a position to begin a truly fulfilling existence. Key ideas that define a transpersonal approach to spiritual development are identified and discussed: (a) impulses toward spiritual development are continuous in every person, (b)full awareness toward spiritual development is not necessarily present at any given time, (c) to develop spiritually practice spirituality, and (d) every individual has the right to choose his or her own spiritual path. Spiritual development is examined as a form of human development and as a psychological concern outside of theological context. Depending on what definition of spiritual development is used, spirituality may or may not be understood to unfold in a stage-life fashion. The relationship between spiritual development and psychological development is examined (e.g., can there be psychological development without spiritual development, and vice versa?). The question of childhood spirituality is examined. Children have a spiritual life that is similar to and different from that of adults in many regards. Research into religious experiences of children are subject to special conceptual and methodological problems. Childhood spiritual experiences are a relatively common phenomena and point to the transpersonal nature of childhood. Transpersonal psychology has a special interest understanding the nature death and dying given its central importance in the life cycle of the human being. The pioneering work of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross has opened the door to a transpersonal approach to care of the dying. The awareness of one's death can not only enhance one's appreciation for living, but also provides an opportunity for personal and transpersonal transformation. The fear of death is an important obstacle to spiritual development. The more familiar that a person can become with alternate states of consciousness in which ego dominance becomes relaxed and a free flow of energies between conscious and subconscious portions of the personality occurs, the less likely that the fear of one's death will impeded further growth in spiritual development. Meditation, visualization, lucid dreaming, out-of-body experiences, and other states of dissociation can help the

11 individual become familiar with death-like conditions so he or she does not fear them. The concepts of death with dignity and appropriate death are examined in light of a transpersonal approach to care of the dying. The role of religion and religious feelings in promoting an appropriate death are highlighted as well as other secular variables. Transpersonal psychology looks for evidence of the soul's operation in life and finds evocative data in the phenomenon of near-death experiences (NDEs). NDEs have a lifetransforming effect on most individuals who undergo them. The "core" characteristics of near-death experiences show some variability across cultures and variables known to influence the content and structure of NDEs are examined. The "death" experience itself has been described in some detail in the Tibetan book of the dead and in some channeled "spirit" writings. Death experiences and NDEs cannot be understood from a single standpoint alone, and thus an integral, multi-factorial approach is required if a comprehensive, accurate, and meaningful understanding of the last stages of living and the beginning stages of dying are to be obtained. Most Americans believe in life after death. One task of transpersonal psychology is to examine the data suggestive of the survival of human personality, follow these facts and remain open to all avenues of fruitful speculation and intuitive possibilities so that psychology's greatest understanding of who and what we are will be achieved in the coming century.

12 Chapter 8 TRANSPERSONAL DEVELOPMENT I. The Nature and Conditions of Transpersonal Human Development Human Development Across the Lifespan What is developmental psychology? Most textbooks in general psychology have an entire chapter devoted to human development across the lifespan. Developmental psychology is the study of age-related changes in physical, cognitive, emotional, moral and social functioning of the human personality across the lifespan from birth to death. Theories of physical development and cognitive development (Piaget & Inhelder, 1948/1956; Vygotsky, 1986), psychosocial and emotional development (Ainsworth, Blehar, Walters, & Wall, 1978; Bowlby, 1969, 1973; Erikson, 1963, 1968; Harlow, 1971; Kagan, 1984; Kagan & Moss, 1962; Levinson, 1978), and moral development (Gilligan, 1982; Kohlberg, 1981, 1984 ) offer differing views of (a) the stability or changefulness of the developmental process, (b) the relative influence of biology or genetics (nature) and culture or environment (nurture) on development, (c) the active or passive role of the individual in his or her own development, and (d) the continuous or discontinuous nature of the growth process. Genetic and environmental factors are viewed as key influences that shape the course of all aspects of human development across the lifespan. Three assumptions of all stage models of development in psychology. The lifespan of the whole human being is typically dissected into bits-and-pieces or parts that can be more easily analyzed. These components into which the life of an individual is divided are referred to as "stages of development" -- prenatal, infancy, childhood, adolescence, youth, adulthood, and old age. These portions of the lifespan are not arbitrary. They are categorized based upon perceived differences or changes observed to occur across time between one category and another. Stage theories are a popular way of understanding changes in human nature. Whether we are talking about behavior change in cognition (Piagetian's theory of cognitive development), morality (Kohlberg's and Gilligan's stage theories of moral development), sexuality (Freud's psychosexual stages of development), or personality (Erikson's stage theory of psychosocial development), a "stage" theory is often used to organize and make sense of observations. All stage theories make three assumptions about conditions and nature of human development. First, development and growth proceeds in a sequence of continuous, chronologically-ordered steps or phases that cannot be rearranged. Second, although not all individuals go through the sequence at the same rate, individual must move through each step or phase in their fixed order and cannot skip, bypass, or leap over one stage to the next. Third, behaviors at one stage, phase, or period are perceived to be qualitatively different, not just quantitatively more of the same, from behaviors that appear at earlier pre- or later poststages. All people, in other words, are believed to go through the same stages in the same order. Environmental factors, such as culture, may speed up or slow down development in particular areas (e.g., physical, motor, moral, cognitive, social, spiritual), but the order of the stages is believed to be invariant. An individual cannot enter a later stage without going through an earlier one. Changes from one stage to the next may be gradual or abrupt, and the tasks or challenges of some stages may met successfully (oral psychosexual stage) while others may remain to be resolved (psychosocial basic trust), but development appears to proceed in an orderly sequence that depends on the maturation of the mind-body organism as it forms and interacts with its environment. Within general stages of development, unique and personal development occurs. Change in physical, cognitive, emotional, moral and social development is spontaneously ever-occurring and reoccurring. Developmental change may involve not only growth. Developmental change may also involve a complete disorientation to make way for a different, perhaps, newer orientation (e.g., moving from a preoperational to a concrete operational stage of cognitive development). The change is always gradual, however, and in certain terms continuous. Were it not so, we could say "Now this is the moment I am this, and now this is

13 the moment I am that." Actually there is only a change of form that occurs in such instances with one form fading into another form while one's core identity remains intact. The concept of developmental stages is itself intimately wrapped up with one's perception of time, difference, and implied change from one form to another as a result of one's apparent continuity and duration through time -- past, present and future. The important point to remember about all stage theories of development is that even though general, abstract patterns and stages of development can be discerned in the aggregate and for the species as a whole, nevertheless each and every individual instance of that general developmental pattern is unique. Stages of development beyond the conventional. Developmental psychology often does not address stages of development beyond conventional cognition, emotion, morality, motivation, or identity. Those scholars who do present concepts and theories that address post-conventional levels of development -- for example, Abraham Maslow's (1971) Being-cognition and metamotivation, Lawrence Kolberg's (1981, 1984) postconventional morality, Ken Wilber's (1977, 1980) subtle and causal spectrum of consciousness, John Curtis Gowan's (1974, 1975) syntaxic mode of cognition and psychedelic stage of development beyond formal operations, and Walsh & Shapiro's (1983) and Miller & Cook-Greuter's (1984) compendium of growth-oriented theories offering a comprehensive view of the interconnection and integration of different dimensions of human development beyond self-actualization -- all recognize that mature adulthood does not represent the full possibilities of psychological growth and development of which individuals and the species are capable. These further reaches of human development manifest themselves ordinarily in exceptional experiences and behavior that can be called transpersonal because they take us beyond the developmental limits set upon us by convention and habit, family upbringing and formal schooling, social norms and cultural conditioning. Many of the unfortunate conditions that are less than ideal in our world today are the result of the developmental limits that the human cultural world has set upon its individuals (Walsh, 1984). If we harbor undreamed-of possibilities, if normality is actually frozen development, and if much of our individual, social, and global distress reflects this frustrated development, the next question is obvious. How can we overcome these blocks and foster individual and collective maturation? (Walsh & Vaughan, 1993, p.111). Transpersonal Human Development Distinguishing transpersonal and traditional mainstream approaches to human development. Transpersonal psychology adds to the approach taken by most mainstream perspectives of human development in several ways. First, transpersonal psychology includes the spiritual dimension of personality functioning into its account of human development. Spirituality is an essential aspect of human life and is biologically pertinent, affecting the physical and psychological health of the body and mind. Humans are by nature spiritual creatures; it is an aspect of human psychology that is most often overlooked in traditional theories of human development. Second, transpersonal psychology places an emphasis on the balanced and integrated development of the whole person, in his or her physical, emotional, cognitive, social and spiritual aspects -- conscious and subconscious. Human development cannot be understood from a biological or environmental standpoint alone; genetic and environmental factors are not the only influences that shape the course of human development across the lifespan. The person himself or herself is a third variable influencing the course of his or her own development. From a transpersonal perspective, the human personality is far more open to other sorts of stimuli other than physical data alone (e.g., dreams,

14 imaginings, memories of various kinds, ideals, intents, subconscious telepathic communication) from inner psychic sources of information that are not, strictly speaking, caused by either heredity or environment. Third, the various models and metaphors of transpersonal development presented by Assagioli (1988), Helminiak (1987), Metzer (1980, 1986), Vaughan (1985), Washburn (1995), Wilber (1979, 1980, 1981b, 1983a, 1999a), and others all recognize the elemental and foundational role of consciousness as a key but frequently overlooked factor -- in addition to genetic and environmental influences -- that energizes and directs human development in all of its aspects throughout the lifespan. A variety of bodymind conditions of consciousness influence the course of human development -- normal or ordinary and altered or nonordinary -- that provide an important context and process through which the transcendent expresses itself in human development. Fourth, questions of value, meaning, and purpose (or what Maslow called "metaneeds") that underlie healthy psychosocial development are addressed by transpersonal psychology. The subjective life of the developing personality is not value-neutral. Fifth, by attending to innate impulses toward self transcendence beyond ego, transpersonal psychology takes a more expansive and inclusive view of development in its creative and transformative aspects than does mainstream psychology, drawing attention to the large organized patterns of exceptional activity that supports human development and that often escapes the notice of traditional developmental psychology (Miller & Cook-Greuter, 1994). Although the possibility of the human personality's survival of physical death and subsequent incarnation in another body with all memories and experiences surviving intact is regarded as a logical and empirical impossibility as far as orthodox developmental psychology is concerned, for example, some transpersonal scholars regard it as a fruitful hypothesis worthy of further investigation. The scientific work of Ian Stevenson (1997a) and Stanislav Grof (1985) and the clinical work of Weiss (1988) and Wooler (1987) suggests that a knowledge of reincarnational influences can shed valuable light on the nature of an individual's character, abilities, and liabilities that emerge and develop across the lifespan. Sixth, because of its focus on balanced and integrated whole-person development, transpersonal psychology emphasizes experiential learning so that intellectual awareness and abstract understanding of spiritual consciousness can be given immediate, direct, and vivid psychological roots. Experiential and intellectual learning go hand-in-hand in transpersonal development. Bodybased, intuitive, imagistic, and creativity-enhancing techniques and practices (e.g., mindfulness/concentration meditation, self-hypnotic states of consciousness, lucid dreaming, active imagination, creative visualization) may be used to help the individual become filled with and refreshed by new information and revelations that emerge in alternate states of awareness. The received illuminations and insights are translated and assimilated into one s normal frame of reference so that these new comprehensions become retained and available to the individual for personal development. Implications of a transpersonal approach to human development. If the transpersonally-grounded hypotheses that consciousness forms the genes (and not the other way around) is correct, that free will and telepathy operate, that people are motivated by metaneeds and being-values, and individuals possess an inner Transpersonal Self upon whom one can rely for guidance and inspiration, then we receive a new understanding of the role of human agency in lifespan development, and of the unsuspected purpose and meaning of those seemingly coincidental encounters that form certain cornerstones in each person s life, and which set up as strong probabilities certain constellation of events that serve as avenues for fulfillment of body, mind, and spirit in each person s life. Deep down, though our private purpose for

15 living may not be consciously known or clearly apprehended as we move through the various seasons of our lives, deep down we know that our experiences matter, that there is meaning to our lives -- no matter how obscured by grief or doubt, anger or frustration, feelings of worthlessness and powerlessness that may cloud our perceptions. Throughout all physical and psychological changes we may experience in the course of our personal lifetime, we are sustained and couched by a transpersonal psyche that exists within a greater framework of events which connects each and every one of us, not only with one another, but also with larger generalized patterns and stages of development that also bind us all, because each of us is indeed a part of nature and of nature's source. The Role of the Transpersonal Psyche in Human Development The stability of the inner transpersonal psyche. It has been said that "Human nature cannot change" or that "Evolution is finished." Such ideas and beliefs about human development are highly erroneous. Nothing can be static, and believe it or not, nothing is. Human nature is not a finished product, but the sort of consciousness meant to change, develop, and grow. Like the world and the species of which he or she is a part, each individual is in a state of becoming (Allport, 1955/1969). When we were born, we were filled with an innate knowledge that we came into this world to learn and grow. We took it for granted, when we were children, that we were in a process of learning and growing, no matter what happened to us. We knew that we were in a state of becoming -- not becoming more perfect, but becoming more perfectly ourselves. We intuitively realized that our being was immersed in and a part of the process of growth and change. Physically, our identity changes even as the atoms and molecules that compose the cells and organs that make up our bodies change. Throughout those physical changes, though, we recognize some part of ourselves as remaining the same. We call that part of us that seemingly appears the same as our identity. "This is me" and "I am myself" we say. Yet, even that statement does not mean the same thing when spoken by a child, an adolescent, a young adult and an old adult. Though personal memories are retained that give individual identity a sense of continuity over time, even that identity changes and those memories colored by the various differences in what "This is me" and "I am myself" come to mean at various stages of development across the lifespan. If we identify with our body alone, then that portion of our identity will always change, for the body is part and parcel of a constantly changing physical framework. If we identify with our conscious "I," then that portion of our identity too will always change as its conception of itself constantly changes according to its age and social and cultural environments. The one stability is the inner, Transpersonal Self that is behind all physical constructions of the body and all ego constructions of the outer personality. A motive force behind all "ideal" patterns of individual development. Within general developmental patterns and stages of development are personalized patterns that point to ideal developments present in each individual -- natural inclinations toward growth and fulfillment against which individuals judge their acts and accomplishments. It is the inner Transpersonal Self that nudges the individual toward his or her own particular, idiosyncratic "ideal" pattern of growth. These inner patterns of ideal personal development to which each individual is connected are not rigid, but flexible enough to take advantage of changing environments, situations, and circumstances. In other words, while the lines or streams of development (cognitive, affective, moral, social, spiritual) present a pattern that is definite enough to give us the recognizable kind of stages that mainstream developmental psychologists accept, the overall pattern or stages are variable enough to allow for literally infinite variations. As transpersonal writer and channel Jane Roberts (1979d) put it: "You are ever becoming yourself.... Biologically, mentally, and spiritually you are marked as apart from all others, and no cloak of conventionality can ever hide that unutterable uniqueness. You cannot help but be yourself, then" (p. 108). One's transpersonal psyche, the part of oneself that the conscious "I" does not yet recognize, is aware of those personalized developmental patterns and stages of development. One's transpersonal psyche is aware of the certain leanings and inclinations, hidden abilities and characteristics, and probable lines of development that are contained

16 within each person and present in one's very biological structure. These are triggered into activity (or not) by exterior stimuli according to each individual's private purposes and intents. A person may be personally gifted in the area of mathematics or athletics, for example, and yet his or her inclination and intent may lead him or her in another, different direction. Every individual is gifted in a variety of ways, and everyone has abilities that are unknown to the consciously-oriented portions of the self. Which abilities, talents, powers, or gifts become actualized and manifested in one's life depends upon the necessary triggering mechanisms of desire, belief, purpose and intent. The same applies to spiritual development. Spiritual experience and knowledge is potentially available to all, but is attained only through desire and through intent. Without the triggering desire on the part of the conscious "I", the transformational experience will not occur and knowledge will not develop. Symbols of Transformation and Transpersonal Development Mystical experiences of direct knowing without symbolization. What is the transformational experience of transpersonal development like? The experience of liberation, enlightenment, and mysticism are very difficult to describe in words. Such transpersonal experiences of pure knowing and pure feeling are often called "ineffable" because they occur without the necessity for symbols or representations that would aid in their interpretation and communication. As awareness becomes less and less physically oriented in such further transpersonal regions of consciousness, the need for mental representations such as words and images falls away, being by-products of the original experience (Roberts, 1972, chap. 18). In such higher stages of consciousness, the mystic feels direct experience in which inner realizations and realities that have been perceived through direct knowing are instantly felt and known without the use of meditating symbolization. In Buddhist literature, such experiences of consciousness without symbols are interpreted as states of nonbeing. The idea of form is so important to a such a symbol-oriented species as our own that when form and symbol vanish, we deduce that being itself has vanished as well! But in higher states of consciousness, the symbols are no longer necessary, and creativity take place completely without their use....in this stage of consciousness the soul finds itself alone with its own feelings, stripped of symbolism and representations, and begins to perceive the gigantic reality of its own knowing.... Without symbols to come between it and experience, it perfects itself in a kind of value fulfillment that you presently cannot understand except symbolically.... Now these efforts go on whether you wake or sleep. (Roberts, 1972, pp ) Symbols stand for inner realities and the changing characteristics of consciousness in various states. Symbols and metaphors can have such a powerful effect upon the reasoning mind -- which usually depends so heavily upon the outer physical senses for its information -- because symbols are the language of the subconscious. Symbolization is the non-verbal language which the unconscious uses, for example, to speak to our conscious mind in dreams, art, poetry, and meditation about nonordinary realities of the transpersonal psyche and the central mysteries of human life that can never be expressed adequately through language and that have not been perceived through the instant cognition and comprehension of the mystic. Symbols serve as physical-like signposts signaling changes or transformation in states of feeling and levels of consciousness (Roberts, 1972, chap. 18). The various symbols of transformation, not only express a particular state of emotion and represent a particular type of transformation, but also stand for inner reality and indicate the state of awareness within it. The various kinds of symbols of transformation are indicators of the characteristics that consciousness takes and the different directions in which it focuses in different states of consciousness. At different stages of development, consciousness works with different kinds of symbols. Each symbol stands for a different inner reality, in other words. The symbols that emerge at various stages of changes and transformation of consciousness appear differently. The variety and fluidity of symbols indicate the variety and fluidity of kinds of selftransformation possible. Their changing guises represent and are indicators of the infinite variation of

17 feelings of which we, as a species and as individuals, are capable. A symbol's changing guise also serves as a bridge connecting and linking one state of consciousness with another, one element or condition of our psyche with another, one semantic domain with another. If we could recognize that even the physical objects we see "out there" in the physical world are not only themselves, but also symbols -- symbols that we bring with us into our dreams and other states of consciousness to represent of waking perception, feeling, and thoughts -- it would be easier for us to understand the great unity between waking and dreaming symbols, and symbols' active, dynamic nature and ability to work on us and within us without our conscious recognition whether we wake or sleep. Symbols of transformation. Given that transpersonal states such as mysticism are relatively rare and difficult to translate into terms that verbally-structured thought can understand, symbols and metaphors are used that provide handy visual and conceptual aids that stand for or represent the mystic's inner realizations and transcendental realities that cannot be perceived by normal physically-oriented waking consciousness. There are numerous symbols and metaphors that have been carried through across the centuries in various stories, parables, allegories, myths, legends, folktales, and the religious literature of the world's wisdom traditions and that attempt to translate into normal conscious terms what such transpersonal states of consciousness are like (Metzner, 1980). For example, one popular metaphor that has been used to help people understand those states of consciousness that occur after death is the metamorphosis of caterpillar into butterfly ("What the caterpillar believes is the end of its life, the butterfly knows is but its beginning"). Such metaphors have the power not only to convey information about these kinds of inner transformations, but to also inspire and bring about inner understanding and the process of psychospiritual transformation itself. Classical metaphors of transformation. Metzner (1980) identified ten classical metaphors of selftransformation that highlight the many different ways in which the transformation experience and the fluid, dynamic process of personal transpersonal development can be understood to occur. Whether we theorize that human transformation is an instance of conversion, discovery of the sacred, mysticism, stage of a mystical path, rebirth, metanoia, spiritual development, transition, evolution, metamorphosis, or transmutation of elements, the following symbols, metaphors, and images can help us understand that the experience is like. It matters not whether the process of self-transformation is abrupt or gradual, temporary or lasting, externally induced or internally induced, brought about through intention or by grace, openly manifested or invisible to others, progressive or regressive or digressive. The nature and value of a transformative experience can be expressed by one or several of the following symbols and metaphors: From Dream-Sleep to Awakening From Illusion to Realization From Darkness to Enlightenment From Imprisonment to Liberation From Fragmentation to Wholeness From Separation to Oneness From Being on a Journey to Arriving at the Destination From Being in Exile to coming home From Seed to Flowering Tree From Death to Rebirth Each of these symbols or metaphors can serve as a releasing agent, helping the individual tune into different kinds of transformation of consciousness, setting loose that which has been fixed, and lowering barriers that serve to impede the free flow of energy and communication between the conscious and subconscious.